The Ren and Stimpy Show

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The Ren and Stimpy Show
Format Animated series
Created by John Kricfalusi
Starring Billy West
John Kricfalusi
Country of origin Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Image:Flag of Canada.svg Canada
No. of seasons 5
No. of episodes 52 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time approx. 0:22 (0:11 per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel Nickelodeon
Original run August 11, 1991 – November 14, 1996
External links
IMDb profile

The Ren and Stimpy Show was an American animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi.[1] The series follows the adventures of the eponymous characters: Ren Höek, a neurotic "asthma-hound" chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat (a.k.a. Stimpy) — a simpleminded, tailless cat. They wander around in nonsensical adventures in a style reminiscent of the Golden Age of American animation.[2] Kricfalusi created the characters around 1979, while working on low-budget TV cartoons. The two characters were originally conceived as unrelated doodles until Kricfalusi's co-worker, Joel Fajnor, advised him to pair them together.[3]

Though a series from the children's cable network Nickelodeon, The Ren and Stimpy Show had a reputation for subversive humor. While primarily controversial for grotesque imagery and cartoon violence[2], the series also lampooned aspects of western culture, such as materialism[4] and superstition.[5] In 1992, John Kricfalusi, the show's creator (and voice of Ren), was fired from the show by Nickelodeon, with production being moved from his Spümcø studios to Games Animation[6], where it stayed until its cancellation in 1996.

Contents

[edit] Characters

Main article: Ren and Stimpy Show characters

The main characters are Ren Höek and Stimpson J. Cat.

Image:RentheChihuahua.JPG
Ren Höek, Asthma Hound Chihuahua

Ren Höek (first Appearance: "Big House Blues", 1990) is a scrawny "Asthma-Hound" chihuahua. He is vain[7], spiteful[8], conniving[9], and abusive with a short temper. When irritated, he calls Stimpy an "eeediot" and slaps him across the face. The character's name was inspired by the real name of Kricfalusi's building manager.[3] Kricfalusi originally voiced him, using a voice mixing Peter Lorre and Kirk Douglas.[2] When Kricfalusi was fired from the show, Billy West, already the voice of Stimpy, took over the role using a combination of Burl Ives, Kirk Douglas, and a slight "south of the border accent" [10] for the rest of the Nickelodeon run. Kricfalusi returned to the voice, however, for the Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" on Spike TV.

Image:Stimpson J. Cat.JPG
Stimpson J."Stimpy" Cat, Cornish Rex

Stimpson J."Stimpy" Cat is a fat, tailless, red and white cat with a blue nose, purple eyelids, and flat feet.[11]. He is often blissfully naive[12], and tends to prove Ren right when he calls him an idiot[13], though he has shown the occasional flash of intelligence and cunning[14]. Despite the constant abuse from Ren, he is deeply devoted to him.[15] He does most of the work around the house, and has a deep emotional attachment to his kitty litter box, his "first material possession". Stimpy was voiced by West for the Spumco and Games Animation episodes, basing the voice on an "amped-up" Larry Fine. [10] The character was played by Eric Bauza in the Adult Party Cartoon.

The show features a host of supporting characters, both recurring and single episode appearances, although Ren and Stimpy are the only characters to appear in every episode. Some of the supporting characters factor directly into the storyline (such as George Liquor) while others only make brief cameos. Other characters, such as Mr. Horse, are exclusively cameo-based, appearing in many episodes in bits that have little bearing on the plot.

[edit] History

[edit] Spümcø 1991-1992

In 1989, Kricfalusi pitched, and eventually sold, The Ren and Stimpy Show to Nickelodeon.[3] Kricfalusi's own animation house, Spümcø, finished the pilot in October 1990 and the first episode of the show proper aired on August 11, 1991, premiering alongside Doug and Rugrats[16]. Spümcø continued to produce the show for the next two years while encountering issues with Nickelodeon standards and practices. Over the years a number of episodes were censored;[17] Nickelodeon eventually fired Kricfalusi in 1992. Without Kricfalusi, production was moved from Spümcø to Games Animation.[18] The main sticking points for the Nickelodeon executives seemed to be the level of violence in the show, and Kricfalusi points specifically to the episode "Man's Best Friend", which features Ren beating the character George Liquor with an oar, for his firing.[19] That episode, in fact, was banned from airing on Nickelodeon, and didn't air in North America until Adult Party Cartoon began in 2003.[19]

Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer for Rocko's Modern Life, believes that Kricfalusi "got what he asked for." Describing the Ren and Stimpy as a "gifted Animator with a great deal of genius" and that "his business skills are sadly lacking," Marsh reasons that Kricfalusi ought to have catered to Nickelodeon's demands and treated Nickelodeon with respect since he chose the network as a client. Marsh says that Kricfalusi ought to have used a theater release for an short animated film, a direct-to-video release system, or "some pay-cable medium." Marsh describes his opinion as placing him "in the minority" after debating the issue with other animators. [20]

[edit] Games Animation 1993-1996

Bob Camp wrote and directed the episodes for Games Animation when they took over the show.[6] Since Kricfalusi was also the voice of Ren, West took over the role.

The show was ultimately canceled in 1996, ending its Nickelodeon run with a Christmas episode ("A Scooter for Yaksmas"), with nine episodes never airing on the network.

[edit] Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon 2003-2004

Main article: Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"

In 2003, Kricfalusi re-launched the series as Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". The new version was aired during a late night programming block on Spike TV and was rated TV-MA. The series, as the title implied, explored more adult themes, including a more explicit homosexual relationship between the main characters[21] and an episode filled with female nudity.[22] According to MTV Networks, The Ren & Stimpy Show will finally return to Nickelodeon with their acquisition of the show's continuation around summer 2008.

The show began with the "banned" Nickelodeon episode "Man's Best Friend" before debuting new episodes. Kricfalusi only got the network three of the ordered nine episodes on time.[23] After three episodes, the entire animation block was removed from Spike TV's programming schedule.

[edit] Music

Main article: Music of Ren and Stimpy

The Ren and Stimpy Show and Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" featured a wide variety of music, ranging from folk to pop to jazz. The opening and closing themes were performed by a group of Spümcø employees under the name "Die Screamin' Lederhosen" [24] as a comic reconstruction of German band Die toten Hosen. "Ren and Stimpy" have also released three albums; Crock O' Christmas, You Eediot!, and Radio Daze.

In addition to music written specifically for the show, a number of episodes utilized existing works by composers such as jazz musician Raymond Scott[25], Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Alexander Borodin, Rossini (particularly The Thieving Magpie), and a host of "production music", which fans later compiled into an album.[26]

[edit] Home releases

[edit] VHS

Throughout the 1990s, Sony Wonder distributed various collections of The Ren & Stimpy Show on VHS video tape in the United States and Canada.[27] Unconfirmed rumors state that some of the tapes were censored Nickelodeon versions, while others were uncut Spümcø versions. All videos are now out of print.

Eventually, the rights for Nickelodeon's programming on home video were transferred from Sony to Paramount Home Video. Paramount only released one video of The Ren and Stimpy Show, "Have Yourself a Stinky Little Christmas", which was actually a re-release of one of Sony's videos that had been released several years earlier. Like all of the other Paramount cassettes of Nickelodeon shows, they were recorded in the EP/SLP format. Tapes released by Sony were recorded in SP format.

Several tapes, mainly containing episodes produced by Games Animation, were released in the United Kingdom in the PAL format — which is not playable on conventional US VCRs. Bill Wray painted the covers for the UK-only cassettes, each of which was rated PG by the British Board of Film Classification. Interestingly, the earlier, Spümcø-based tapes typically received U (all ages) ratings from the BBFC, despite being more controversial with Nickelodeon's censors.

[edit] LaserDisc

The Ren and Stimpy Show was also released on LaserDisc in the U.S. by Sony Wonder. There was only one release, "Ren and Stimpy: The Essential Collection", featuring the same program content -- in higher quality -- as the Ren and Stimpy Classics and Classics II VHS tapes. The double-sided disc is recorded in CLV mode, and has digital sound.

[edit] DVD

See also: List of episodes of The Ren and Stimpy Show#DVD releases

Several episodes of The Ren and Stimpy Show were released by Time-Life as The "Best of" set in September 2003.[28] This set is now out of print.[29]

On October 12, 2004, Paramount Home Video released the first two complete seasons in a three-disc box set. Although the cover art and press materials claimed the episodes were "uncut", a handful of episodes were, in fact, edited due to the use of Spike TV masters.[30] One of the episodes from the second season, "Svën Höek", did have footage reinserted from a work in progress VHS tape, but with an editing machine time code visible on-screen. The scene was later restored by fans.[31]

A set for Seasons Three and a Half-ish, containing all of season three and the first half of season four (up to "It's A Dog's Life/Egg Yolkeo")[32] followed on June 28, 2005[33], with Season five and some more of four, completing the Nickelodeon series, on July 20[34].

On July 17, 2006, a two-disc set dubbed The Lost Episodes was released.[35] The Lost Episodes set featured both the aired and unaired episodes from Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, as well as clips from unfinished cartoons.[36]

[edit] UMD

On September 25, 2005, a compilation entitled The Ren and Stimpy Show: Volume 1 was released in the U.S. on UMD, the proprietary media for the Sony PlayStation Portable.

[edit] Controversies

As the show grew in popularity, parent groups complained that Stimpy was subject to repeated violence from Ren. The show often contained scenes where Ren would break down into fits of psychosis and gleefully plot to kill Stimpy. For example, in "Stimpy's Fan Club", Ren tries to break Stimpy's neck. Other sources for complaint were the scatological humor[37], language used, and the show's use of innuendo.[38] The show also featured several characters smoking, including Ren and Stimpy themselves. These problems were used more in the Games Animation episodes than the Spümcø episodes. In some Games episodes, there were male cows with udders.

[edit] UK DVD censoring

In October 2006, Paramount UK released the first two seasons of The Ren and Stimpy Show on DVD (Region 2). The distributors were forced to heavily edit the episode "Out West", which had the entire "The Lord Loves a Hangin'" song removed due to concerns from the BBFC that children would copy it. Perhaps because of this, Paramount did not attempt to have any of the US set's audio commentaries, or the "banned" episode "Man's Best Friend" classified for inclusion on the DVD (although "Man's Best Friend" is mentioned on the packaging).[39]

[edit] Australian DVD censoring

The episode "Man's Best Friend" was cut from the Australian DVD (Region 4), and all mentions of it were removed from the packaging - except an image from the episode on the third disc case. Yet seeing as this is the only reference, it would (to anyone not knowing the episode) be passed off as an image from "Dog Show" - another episode featuring George Liquor. The Australian Edition, unlike the UK release, kept the entire "Lord Love's a Hangin'" sequence intact; however, like the UK Edition, the set commentaries were removed.

[edit] Ren and Stimpy in other media

[edit] Video games

Ren & Stimpy-themed games have been produced for Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, SNES, NES, Game Boy, the PC, PlayStation, and Game Boy Advance. Most of the games were produced by THQ.

Additionally, Ren & Stimpy were included in several Nickelodeon-themed activity and crafts software for computers.

Ren & Stimpy were also created in full 3D for Microsoft's Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker.

[edit] Comic books

Marvel Comics optioned the rights to produce comic books based on Nickelodeon properties in 1992. Their initial plan was to have an anthology comic featuring several Nicktoons properties, but Ren & Stimpy proved to be so popular the comic was instead dedicated entirely to them. Marvel produced 44 issues of the ongoing series, along with several specials. Most of these were written by comic scribe Dan Slott. One Ren & Stimpy special #3, Masters of Time and Space, was set up as a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' and with a time travel plot, took Slott six months to plot out in his spare time. It was designed so that it was possible to choose a path that would eventually be 20 pages longer than the comic itself. Issue #6 of the series starred Spider-Man, battling Powdered Toast Man.

[edit] Parodies

  • In 1993, Parody Press Comics produced a one-shot comic book entitled Rank & Stinky no. 1 [40]; it starred a rabbit named Rank Hoax and a rat named Stinky who looked almost identical to Ren and Stimpy, and the three stories in the book lampooned (1) the battle between Kricfalusi and Nickelodeon, (2) The Simpsons, and (3) consumer culture.
  • The Tiny Toon Adventures "Spring Break Special" features a scene in which parody versions of Ren and Stimpy (a rooster and squirrel also coincidentally named Rank and Stinky) try to hitch a ride with the Tiny Toons. The same episode also featured parodies of Beavis and Butt-head (Beaver and Big-head).
  • Ren and Stimpy was parodied on The Simpsons in the episode The Front where-in the Ren and Stimpy show was nominated for an animation award against Itchy and Scratchy.

[edit] Airing history

[edit] Episodes

[edit] TV channels

  • Canada
  • USA
  • UK
    • BBC2 (1994-1997)[1]
    • Nickelodeon (January 1994-2006)
      • The Ren and Stimpy Show aired in the summer of 2006 as part of the Hall of Fame block; they aired "Sammy and Me" and "The Last Temptation of Ren".
    • Nicktoons (2004-2007)
    • MTV One (2002)
    • MTV Two (2002)
  • Germany
  • Argentina
  • Brazil
  • Romania
  • Ireland
    • TV3 (1998-2001)
  • Turkey
  • Australia
    • The Ren and Stimpy Show formerly aired on Nickelodeon Australia in the early hours of the morning (before this, it aired spontaneously and on weekend nights). It has aired on the channel ever since Nickelodeon Australia was created in 1995. It is not currently showing on the channel. The show used to air in the 1990s on free-to-air Network Ten's morning program The Big Breakfast in various timeslots, but the show was cancelled many years ago, therefore The Ren and Stimpy Show was not shown anymore. The show was also minorly shown on the Nine Network for an amount of time before being taken off the air in late 2004.
    • Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" formerly aired on pay TV channel The Comedy Channel (throughout 2005), and on the free-to-air network Nine Network in the early hours of the morning (around the time that The Ren and Stimpy Show aired on the network).
  • New Zealand
    • TVNZ Channel 2 (1992-1996)
    • C4 (2003-2007; note: TV4 was renamed C4 on October 1, 2003)
  • Poland

[edit] United States airings in 2007

On Nickelodeon's Super Stuffed Nicktoons weekend, the first episode "Stimpy's Big Day/The Big Shot" was aired on November 22, 2007.

On December 4, 2007, the final episode of The Ren and Stimpy Show, "A Scooter for Yaksmas" (originally aired in 1996), aired on Nicktoons Network.

[edit] See also

Nickelodeon Portal

[edit] Source

  • Ren and Stimpy: In the Beginning featurette included on The Ren & Stimpy Show: The Complete First and Second Seasons DVD ASIN B0002NY8XA

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Complete First & Second Seasons DVD information page. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  2. ^ a b c John Kricfalusi profile. Notable Names Database. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  3. ^ a b c Ren & Stimpy History (from John Kricfalusi). Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  4. ^ "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball". Written by: Vincent Waller and Bob Camp Directed by: Ron Hughart. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. 1993-03-04. No. 9, season 2.
  5. ^ "Superstitious Stimpy". Written by: Ron Hauge, Jim Gomez, & Bob Camp. Directed by: Bob Camp. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. 1995-04-01. No. 13, season 4.
  6. ^ a b Seasons Three And A Half-ish review. DVDverdict.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  7. ^ "Ren's Pecs". Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. No. 3, season 3.
  8. ^ "Stimpy's Cartoon Show". Written by: John K. and Elinor Blake Directed by: Bob Camp. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. 1994-01-08. No. 22, season 3.
  9. ^ "The Boy Who Cried Rat!". Written by: Vincent Waller and John K. Directed by: John K.. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. 1991-08-25. No. 3, season 1.
  10. ^ a b Donny Deutsch, Billy West. Billy West on Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. CNBC. Retrieved on 19.
  11. ^ "Blazing Entrails". Written by: Bob Camp, Bill Wray, and Jim Gomez Directed by: Bob Camp. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. 1994-10-22. No. 3, season 4.
  12. ^ "A Scooter for Yaksmas". Written by: Bob Camp, Jim Gomez, and Vince Calandra Directed by: Bob Camp. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. 1995-11-14. No. 12, season 5.
  13. ^ "To Salve and Salve Not". Written by: Bob Camp and Vincent Waller Directed by: Bob Camp. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon. 1993-11-20. No. 1, season 3.
  14. ^ "My Shiny Friend". Written by: Ron Hauge, Jim Gomez, Bill Wray, and Bob Camp Directed by: Bill Wray. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon airdate= 1995-1-21. No. 10, season 4.
  15. ^ "The Big Shot". Written by: John K. and Vincent Waller Directed by: John K.. Ren and Stimpy. Nickelodeon airdate= 1991-8-11. No. 1, season 1.
  16. ^ The Ren & Stimpy Show information page. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  17. ^ Ren 'n' Stimpy FAQ. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  18. ^ Season Three and a Half-ish information page. DVDTimes.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  19. ^ a b Dr. Toon interviews John Kricfalusi. Animation World Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
  20. ^ "Dan Abrams' interview with Jeff "Swampy" Marsh," The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ
  21. ^ "Onward and Upward". Written by: Vincent Waller Directed by: John K.. Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon. TNN. 2003-06-23. No. 2, season 1.
  22. ^ "Naked Beach Frenzy". Written by: John K. Directed by: John K.. Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon. TNN airdate= (never aired). No. 2, season 1.
  23. ^ Animation Flash! Industry Newsletter. Retrieved on 2007-05-19. “Reportedly Spike TV has only received three of the nine original episodes it ordered of REN & STIMPY ADULT PARTY CARTOON from creator John Kricfalusi. Kay said he expects the new episodes will come as Kricfalusi spends more time tweaking them than was scheduled.”
  24. ^ http://www.lysator.liu.se/~marcus/ren_stimpy/FAQ12.html
  25. ^ Raymond Scott music in Ren and Stimpy. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  26. ^ REN & STIMPY PRODUCTION MUSIC!. Secret Fun Blog. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  27. ^ Amazon.com collection of The Ren and Stimpy Show on VHS. Retrieved on 2007-05-22.
  28. ^ The Best of Ren & Stimpy. DVDTalk.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  29. ^ Mackenzie, Michael. The Ren & Stimpy Show. DVDTimes.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-05-20. “An earlier 3-disc set, by Time Life, featured select episodes from the first two seasons, but suffered from a number of censor cuts. Long out of print, this set features something of an anomaly in its inclusion of the full-length version of "Ren's Tootache", cut on the Paramount set.”
  30. ^ Ren and Stimpy Show, The - The 1st And 2nd Seasons information page. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  31. ^ Ren & Stimpy Restoration Project. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  32. ^ Ren and Stimpy Show, The - Season 3 and a Half-ish Review. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  33. ^ Ren and Stimpy Show, The - Season 3 and a Half-ish information page. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  34. ^ Ren and Stimpy Show, The - Season 5 and Some More of 4 information page. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  35. ^ Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon - The Lost Episodes information page. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  36. ^ The Lost Episodes promo site. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  37. ^ Letters to the Editor archive. Parents Television Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  38. ^ WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING: A Content Analysis of Children’s Television (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  39. ^ Amazon.co.uk product information page. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  40. ^ http://www.parodypresscomics.com/id2.html

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